Subcontinental records from Bangalore has released a beautiful live album of Norwegian guitarist and composer Haftor Medbøe. Haftor lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland and the concert was recorded there back in July 2013. Funded by the Scottish Government Haftor was able to assemble a band of musicians that he’d always wanted to work with. From Norway came pianist Espen Eriksen and trumpeter Gunnar Halle, and from Denmark bassist Eva Malling and drummer Benita Haastrup.

Haftor has more details: “On the night of the performance we were joined by Scottish/Polish saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski for one track. He had another gig at almost the same time so immediately after playing one song he had to run half a mile to be on time for his other performance. The band rehearsed all-new material for an hour on the day before the gig and spent that evening bonding over dinner and some beers”.

The album starts with “New Happy” featuring Konrad Wiszniewski on saxophone. He plays the first solo and he receives excellent support from the band so we feel the energy he puts into his playing.  this solo is already my first highlight on the album.

After saying goodbye to Konrad With “Run, Konrad, run”, the band continues as a quintet with “Bruichladdich10″ which refers to the whisky with the same name.  The beautiful melody is played softly by Gunnar Halle on trumpet, piano and guitar have solo parts before we hear an open and very rhythmic outro dominated by the trumpet. The free and open playing culminates in a grand finale.

“Minor is the New Major”, the title song of the album comes next.  A soft song with another great melody presented by trumpet and guitar. Haftor plays the solo on this song with a distorted guitar sound and a free rhythm section accompanying him. Very interesting to listen to the ideas of the band members. Espen Eriksen takes the lead after the guitar solo and the song ends with the melody played again.

“More Viking Than You” starts with a bass solo. The melody is played initially by trumpet (with some effects) and piano only. This song sounds like made for a movie with a strong piano and a trumpet floating over the rhythm section. Breathtaking. The solo goes to Haftor Medbøe. He stays calm and soft and the floating trumpet returns which keeps the visual character of the song.

“Steaks & Muscles” comes next. The intro goes to the piano, the melody is played by the guitar and this song modulates nicely between major and minor chords. Piano and bass play a striding riff which is used by the guitar as base to improvise before the solo becomes free and open again. The trumpet sound is electronically altered which creates some very interesting and unusual effects.

“Broadcast For The World” is a beautiful and very harmonic ballad. The melody is played by trumpet and guitar with great support by Espen Eriksen on piano who also plays a brillant solo. This song is definitely the highlight of the album, it is so easy to follow and it is played with great sensitivity and aesthetics.

The album ends with “These Little Things” which is based on a interesting guitar riff. The band shows again how precise they can play and how perfect they can change their dynamics.

The compositions from Haftor Medbøe have all great and easy to follow melodies and the band received a lot of freedom to take the material and improvise rather freely over it without stretching these improvisational parts into excess length. The music hasn’t collected any dust in this six years between recording and releasing and you feel the fun and energy in this album. Thanks to Subcontinental Records who convinced Haftor Medbøe to release this live recording.

Haftor is not only a great composer and an excellent musician, he is also an internationally published researcher in the field of jazz studies and has presented conference papers throughout Europe. If you want to learn more about his work, his projects and his music please check out his website:
http://www.haftormedboe.com/

And finally a playlist of this album on Spotify:

A brand new album from Hungary found it’s way to my mailbox.
Jazz guitarist, composer and arranger Szabolcs Oláh released his latest album “Crystal Brook” on September 6.

Szabolcs Oláh started his first quartet in 2002, which won awards in Hungary and Italy and he is one of the founding members of the Modern Art Orchestra. He leads his own quintet since 2012. The current line-up of the quintet is:

Szabolcs Oláh – guitar
János Ávéd – saxophone
Gábor Cseke – piano
Ádám Bögöthy – double bass
László Csízi – drums

The album was recorded in April 2019 and contains 10 original songs all composed by Szabolcs. He says about this album: “My intention for the compositions was to keep it simple, smooth and crystal clear, yet dynamic, like a japanese calligraphy”.

He also told me how he wrote the songs:  “My method for composing for this album was quite simple. I sat down in the morning at the piano and I improvised. Sometimes these improvisations became songs that I wrote down and started to collect.”

The first song is called “Pearls” which has an energetic intro and a beautiful melody played unison by sax and guitar (a characteristic which we will hear in many other songs on this album). Dynamics are reduced at the beginning of Szabolcs’ solo, but increase throughout his solo. The second solo goes to János Ávéd on saxophone, followed by a piano solo. Bass and drums support the soloists perfectly, this song is great opener for the album.

“The Last Teardrop” is a melancholic tune, again with a lovely melody and a superb piano solo by Gábor Cseke.

“Return to the Park” is the next song and Szabolcs has some background information: “It’s about the joy of returning to play music with my friends, like a child that enjoys to play in the park. Between 2010 and 2012 I was ill and I rarely played live, so this song is also about the recovery”. A song that has a lot of positive vibrations and became one of my highlights on the album.

“Never Again” is a soft song with many modulations, quite complex harmonic structures. Szabolcs’ solo however floats easily over these harmonies.

“Dawn Rider” comes next. Szabolcs has more details: “The song is about a motorcyclist, driving fast into the dawn after breaking up with his love”. A song that is sad and happy at the same time. The band has produced a nice video from the recoding session of this song:

“Runaway” is my second highlight on this album. It starts with a great guitar intro, it has an incredible melody and fantastic solos by guitar, soprano saxophone, bass and piano.

“Crystal Brook” the title song is like a romantic painting. Szabolcs explains: “This song reminds me of moonlight gleaming on a crystal clear mountain brook.”

The next tune is called “Good Boy” and it’s about the young Szabolcs, “a well-behaved and dutiful child”, as he told me. The melody sounds like nursery rhyme but opens nicely for the solos.

“Unfolding Life” is much softer and slower but still has its pace and allows for brillant solos.

The album ends with the ballad “Lunar Muse”. The melody has some “tension and release” as Szabolcs told me. Gábor Cseke plays another excellent piano solo and the album ends in deep melancholy. Very impressive.

Szabolcs Oláh has played some concerts in the last few weeks with his quintet and he said “the feedback on the new album was very positive and inspiring”. There are more concerts to come so if you plan to visit Budapest, check for the local jazz scene because it has some great musicians including Szabolcs and his quintet or the Modern Art Orchestra. Please check for dates on his website:
https://www.szabolcsolahmusic.com/

The album is available on Spotify:

An album that was released in August 2018 from drummer Jay Lawrence caught recently my attention. The major reason for that was the line-up of this album:

• Jay Lawrence – drums
• John Patituci – bass
• Renee Rosnes – piano
• Harry Allen – saxophone
• Terell Stafford – trumpet
• Anthony Wilson – guitar
• Yotam Silberstein – guitar
• Romero Lubambo – guitar

Three excellent guitar players, one of the best bass players on the scene and a great saxophonist for an album of a drummer: a very interesting  combination that works perfectly. The result is an album that contains a combination of originals, standards and a cover version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Crosstown Traffic”.  The same variety is equally found in the arrangements. You find easy grooves, swing tunes, different latin styles, straight jazz and ballads.

The album starts with “Full Moon in Havanna”, a soft and relaxed song, dominated by the saxophone and Romero Lubambo on acoustic guitar.

“What ‘ll I do” is an old Irving Berlin tune in an fantastic new arrangement featuring Jay Lawrence in the syncopated played melody. The solos are accompanied by a straight swinging band.

“Vamonos” comes with a samba groove and features Terell Stafford on trumpet and Yotam Silberstein on guitar. Jay Lawrence gets another chance to shine soloing over an extended montuno.

“Slide” is in contrast a very slow blues. We hear solos by John Patituci on bass, Renee Rosnes on piano and a outstanding plunger muted trumpet solo by Terell Stafford.

“Maria” from the musical “West Side Story” in a fantastic new latin version comes next. Nice grooving band again with Roberto Lubambo on acoustic guitar.

“Dayspring” is a soft ballad featuring Harry Allen on saxophone and Renee Rosnes on piano in two great solos.

“From Nadir to Zenith” is a heavy grooving tune with Terell Stafford on muted trumpet in an alternating solo with Anthony Wilson on guitar.

The title song “Sonic Paragon” comes next. This is a straight-ahead jazz song with impressive solos by Harry Allen on saxophone and Anthony Wilson on guitar.

“Tchoupitoulas” is a song with a special groove and sound, dominated by the trumpet and very much inspired by New Orleans brass band sound.

“Golden Ratio” is a modern jazz tune with sax and Yotam Silberstein on guitar playing the melody interrupted by an interlude in a Reggae groove, very sophisticated.

“Crosstown Traffic” by Jimi Hendrix in a modern jazz-style  up-tempo arrangement is the next song. Solos go to saxophone and Yotam Silberstein on guitar and their playing fits perfectly into this song. A drum solo tops this tune off.

The album closes with a easy swinging “My Winsome Consort” with a Monk-inspired piano solo by Renee Rosnes. Harry Allen plays a smooth saxophone solo and shows his versatility to adapt to different styles. An alternating bass and drum solo guarantee that this song gets it’s special touch.

Overall “Sonic Paragon” is a great album that captivated me with it’s perfect playing, it’s versatility and it’s surprising elements in every song. So take your time to listen to the songs carefully and you will detect the excellence of the material and the musicians.

Listen to the whole album with this playlist on Spotify:

Mark Walker – You Get What You Give

http://www.markwalkerlessons.com/markwalkerdrums/

Grammy award winning drummer, composer and educator Mark Walker from Chicago, Illinois released this album on April 2nd. An excellent combination of originals and standards in Afro-Latin style. Featuring Paquito D’Rivera on clarinet.

Swiss Jazz Orchestra & Guillermo Klein

https://swissjazzorchestra.com/

Form Bern, Switzerland a new record from the best big band in the country featuring only original material from Guillermo Klein.

The Verve Jazz Ensemble – Night Mode

https://www.verve-jazz.com/

Excellent straight-ahead jazz septet from New York. Two saxophones, trumpet, trombone, piano, bass and drums create a full sound. Definitely mainstream music but full of swing and energy.

Bob Sheppard – The Fine Line

https://www.bobsheppard.net/

This album from saxophonist & composer Bob Sheppard has just been released. After playing with stars of the pop, rock and R&B worlds, like Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello and Randy Newman he is now able to choose how he spends his time. He says: “I’m enjoying what I’m doing: the touring, playing with artists that rely upon my creativity and working in the industry. My goal is to bring my ideas to the many interested musicians who are inspired to learn to improvise, developing their saxophone skills and help finding their own voice.”
He found his own voice and produced a great album of contemporary jazz music.

Here is a playlist of those albums that have been released on Spotify:

An incredible debut album from Hungarian-Swedish-Danish singer and multi-instrumentalist Claudia Campagnol has found it’s way to my desk. Official release date is April 23, but two songs have been released as singles in February and March 2019 and are already available on Spotify.

Claudia Campagnol was born in 1987 in Budapest, Hungary, to parents who are both professional musicians. She sang before she could talk, and started playing the piano when she was 4. The whole family moved to Sweden and by the age of 12 she could be seen “guesting” on her parents’ gigs in venues all around the country.

At the age of 12 she discovered her dad’s Jazz fusion albums with Chick Corea, John Patitucci, Mezzoforte or Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter who inspired her for her first composition “Rainbow Dreams” which is found on the album.

After graduating from the University of Music in Malmoe she worked several years in Sweden and around Europe. She settled in Copenhagen, Denmark, where she met the Swedish-Italian drummer Niclas Campagnol, who became her husband. After a baby break Claudia is back on the scene. In 2017, she reached the final in the Danish “Young Jazz” competition. She also starred on Antonio Faraò’s latest album  “Eklektik” (with Marcus Miller) (a very interesting album) and now she is finally releasing her debut album “I’m Strong.”

The album starts with the brilliant Stevie Wonder inspired  “All Through You”, which was released as a single on February 22 and was selected by Apple Music’s editors for their “Best of The Week” playlist covering all genres.  Claudia plays keyboards, bass and sings lead and background vocals, Niclas Campagnol the drums. This song is a soul-pop song in the best tradition of Stevie Wonder, Al Jarreau or Chaka Khan. I was listening a lot to this kind of music in the early ’80s and so I cannot get enough of it.

“I’m Strong”, the title song of the album comes next. A soft tune which was written for Vivian Buczek for her 2014 album “Curiosity”.  What I like especially is the cool combination of keyboard and vocal sounds.

“Do You Love Me” adds Gábor Bolla (saxophone), Zacharias Celinder (guitar) and Gerard Presencer (flugelhorn). The solo goes to Claudia Campagnol with what she calls her keyboard “signature” sound. Claudia wrote and recorded this tune to win the love of Niclas. Nice story with a happy ending.

“For Her” features Gerard Presencer on flugelhorn and is about a woman Claudia Campagnol once met in a dark and smoky jazz club who “made a hell of an impression” on her. The highlight of this song is definitely the flugelhorn solo by Gerard Presencer.

“Conquer the World” is the second tune that was released as a single.  We see a different line-up  with Jimmy Haslip on bass and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums. Claudia explains: “Vinnie Colaiuta played a monstrous drum fill on John Patitucci’s album “On The Corner” which I just had to rewind a hundred times the first time I heard it. Thanks to my label Giant Sheep Music, one of my greatest dreams has now come true!” The tune has a nice steady odd groove and harmonic sequences that remind me again on Stevie Wonder.

“Rainbow Dreams” is a soft and open ballad.  Claudia wrote the song at the age of 12 and it includes interesting harmonic structures. Claudia explains again: “In my teens, I couldn’t wait to get home from school, put on the meanest chord progressions with the baddest cats on the planet and let all my emotions explode through my ears”.

“Z-Song” comes next and features Eliel Lazo on percussion (he is a friend of Silvio Caroli who was featured in my blog two weeks ago). The melody is sung without lyrics, nevertheless the beautiful vocal arrangement dominates this Latin-song.

“Don’t Let It Die” features Carl Mörner Ringström on guitar. Interesting harmonic sequences and a great guitar solo are the highlights of this ballad. Claudia Campagnol gives us more insights: “If you ever had a best friend or a lover whom you could drift away with over a bottle of red wine, talking about the meaning of life throughout the whole night, as if time almost stood still, then you fully understand this tune”.

“It Makes Me Glad” starts with a great and lengthy a-cappella intro and ends with an open piano solo. The inspiration for this song came after an audition for the Swedish vocal ensemble “The Real Group”.

The album ends with the Charlie Chaplin tune “Smile”.  Claudia prepared an arrangement that combines the melody from this song with her idea of “mean” chords to a very uncommon but rather refreshing interpretation.

Overall a great album with a sound I haven’t heard for many years and that reminds me a lot of the music I was listening to in the ’80s but with a fresh and inspiring touch. It is jazzy, it grooves and it is full of new ideas. Claudia Campagnol managed to do her own thing in a brillant manner. Chapeau!

The official CD release party takes place on April 23 in Copenhagen at the PH Halmtorvet 9. If you are in Bremen at the jazzahead!-clubnight on April 27 you can see her at the Swissôtel Bremen.

More information is found on Claudia’s facebook site:
https://www.facebook.com/claudiacampagnolofficial/

Claudia produced also a nice promotional video:

And finally the album has been released on Spotify: